According to the PIL, the temple was built illegally a nephew of NCP leader Ganesh Naik by encroaching upon MIDC land

mumbaiUpdated: Nov 29, 2017 00:54 IST

Kanchan Chaudhari

Hindustan Times

Mumbai The Bombay high court on Tuesday directed the state government and the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) to demolish within four weeks Bawkhaleshwar Mandir in Navi Mumbai.

A division bench of Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice Mahesh Sonak was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by one Sandip Thakur. According to the PIL, the temple was built illegally a nephew of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ganesh Naik by encroaching upon MIDC land.

The bench also dismissed a petition filed by the temple trust challenging the demolition notice issued by the MIDC.

On July 5, 2013, when the petition was filed, the high court had directed the MIDC to remove encroachments from its 1.32 lakh square meters open land at Pawne in TTC Industrial, which included the temple and coconut plantation spread over 54,000 square meters.

Thakur complained that Naik’s nephew Santosh Tandel had grabbed huge amount of the public property. Tandel, who is a trustee of Bawkhaleshwar Mandir Trust, allegedly built the four-storey temple and an artificial pond spread over 9,600 square meters. Tandel had challenged the high court of July 2013 in the Supreme Court, which disposed of the plea without passing an judgment. The petitioner said though decks have been cleared to demolish the temple, no steps were taken by the state government and the MIDC on this.